People Like You - Sapphire
by ClockworkArceus
Summary: The headcanon backstory of Team Aqua's leader, Archie. This story will cover their childhood, friends, adolescence, and the early days of the ill-fated team that only hoped to save humanity from itself. What drove him to the day the sea swallowed the land? (This is one half of the full People Like You, though you don't have to read both halves for the full story - yet.) ORAS based.
1. Chapter 1 - Ashes, Ashes

' _Our home, our heritage.'_

' _What next?'_

' _ **The island doesn't…'**_

"Ey! Matiu, what should I put after this?"

"What?..."

"The island doesn't...do something. Something inspirational that'll really get to people's hearts."

"Gee, don't put me on the spot like that, Ari. I draw cute lizards, not write poetry."

"Be... 's what Maia's going to do anyway."

Ari picked up the little wooden paintbrush in his scratched right hand. The white paint was from the store, the red tint from the berries out back. The signs were laid out in front of them like tanks in an armament shed - the twelves sticking the sticks on the back and the older ones covering them with a clear plastic bag, just in case something went wrong.

The sun shining through the glassless windows was lighting them up a very foreboding red the day was almost done, although no-one would want to take the luxury of sleep tonight - not Ari at least.

"The island doesn't last forever! That'll do!" Matiu suggested, dropping his paintbrush right into his lap. "Since Maia's doing something like…We're gone forever." He opened his arms wide, mimicking the adults he'd seen making speeches.

"...Deep." Ari responded, not looking up.

"...deep as a kiddie pool."

An all-nighter was in order, just like old times.

In old times, sleepovers got hosted in Maia's house or in the middle of the Pattern Bush. The Volbeat would come out of the trees and grass and make them chase them around the woods 'till the sun rose, and the tide was just right for them to race on Horsea-back from one large, spiky rock to another large, spiky rock. Especially on the Week of the Millenium Comet, those nights were memorable.

Then, around the start of the year, the occupation started.

Ari got word of it from Kaia and Maia. Something about how her dad's friend was trying to get his land back - either way, it went from locker-room drama to hot button topic...to this.

Tents had sprung up all over the Water Path and the Green Path like weeds. Maia was given strict instructions to pass on, to never let anyone leave the island, just in case someone took them over while they were gone. The ones from Kanto, the paler ones.

"No...no, it's better than that."

Matiu set about splashing bright white paint on his sign; hopefully that'd make his time worthwhile. Once he stuck it on the stick and marched, it'd drop off onto the ground - the glue he'd managed to get was terrible. Stick glue, the stuff they'd managed to get from the school after the money for proper supplies ran out.

"Is not...not good enough?"

"Oh, shaddup," Ari chuckled, "It's fine," he continued, struggling to fit 'forever' in the tiny space he had, "You have good ideas, really."

The forever ended up being stuck on an extra piece of cardboard and taped onto the side. As Ari said, it was a good idea. At least better than just sitting there scraping the paint off your fingers, waiting for someone to come and get you ready for Pokemon training.

"Funny," Matiu pointed out quietly, to no-one in particular. "Last time I remember us doing this was in…"

"Kindergarten?" Ari suggested, before realising where this was going.

"Yeah. Doesn't feel much different, does it?"

"...Uh…"

Matiu whipped around to see Ari laughing under his breath - he quickly put his palm into the splatter of black paint and slammed it on the sign, making sure to make the print look as photogenic as possible.

"Yeah, it was. I'm pretty sure my painting skills got better since then, though." he replied hastily and watching as Matiu copied him, splattering red paint onto their clean white signs, "Mine, not yours - " The look on Matiu's face didn't change a bit, although that was probably because he was looking at something behind him -

"Aww." cooed Kaia, poking her older sister to come and see, "See, I told you they'd get along just fine by tonight if you put them together."

" _...What."_

Kaia was casually leaning on her friend Maia's shoulder, keeping a young child behind them with one hand and heaving a bucket of shells in the other. "Hey, Maia. Tell them," she twittered, "Tell them, tell them, tell - "

"My dad - a-and I - agreed," Maia announced, waiting for Ari and Matiu and Kaia to all turn to her, "that we can have the massive storage tent. He's gonna take it down tomorrow and put it up nearer in here, but it's empty tonight!"

"Yep!" Kaia continued, watching as Matiu's face lit up, "And we get s'mores from the nice white guy in the dinghy, and - "

Maia started quietly shaking her head.

"Is he there?..." she questioned, "...okay, never mind." She kicked a stone by her foot, still smiling a massive, stupid grin. Maia was mirroring her, watching everyone around her light up - they were flocking to her already.

"Can my little bro come?" Matiu asked, motioning to the tiny kid wandering around aimlessly towards him.

Kaia pretended not to notice them tugging at her streaked blue ponytail, getting sand all over it.

"Uh - "

The kid gave up and ran off laughing to the clump of bushes off to the left, waving a little red flag - "Tamati! Not over there!" - and dragging his Psyduck off to Water Path to swim. "Christ, I told you, the Tentacruel will screw you up if you…"

"Yeah, nah," Kaia muttered, quickly checking if she had a red flag too.

"Don't worry yourself, Matiu - your other bro's gonna be here anyway!" Ari laughed, slapping him on the back and swivelling him around to everyone else, "Am I right?"

"Right, right…"

"Eh - maybe you'll get paid leave from babysitting..." he noted under his breath, getting a guilty snicker from Matiu and titters from everyone else as the quartet walked off, dragging their signs behind them as they strode off to the Green Path.

"Anyway, Maia, I was talking before about this girl Katie from the steampunk club I sort-of-kind-of joined at the local school - "

They were almost running now, feet thumping on the ground - they'd been sitting around all day, and the day was finally over.

"Go on." Maia muttered.

"And she's just...a gatekeeper. Like, the club's saying they're inclusive but half the members sure ain't. Always going on like 'Kaia's not read anything before the 20th century, she's edgy and she dyed her hair'…"

"Like - no, Katy, I'm not edgy, I'm just ten times more mature than you!...I mean - have you met this girl?" Kaia groaned, panting to catch up with Maia.

"Nope."

"Blondish hair, wearing that cliche top hat?..." she described, "Oh, well, sorry for ranting to you about her then if you didn't know her…" She took a quick look behind her to see if there were any brass-glittering, cog-wearing teenagers wandering around behind her.

"No, no, don't be like that," Maia corrected, "Why'd I change now?"

"...Thought you were sick of people ranting, like your dad." Kaia explained heartily, slapping a hand on Maia's back -

"Ahaha, no!" she confirmed lightly,

"Hold onto that thought. I'll...I'll talk later." she finished under her breath as she seemed to remember something. They passed the edge of the fence, left the little old settlement, and now they were walking, toes deep in the grass, under the moonlight - just like old times.

 **That is, until Maia caught Ari's hand and pulled him aside.**

"Huh?" he asked, flinching, "What is it?"

She looked composed as ever, though he'd probably noticed him flinch.

"Hey…" she started, "Ari."

"Yeah? What'd you wanna say?" he asked, taking a quick look back to the group, who didn't notice they were gone.

"You told me to go and ask m' dad Braviary when you'd need to start preparing. Patching up your pet Poochyena's leg, say bye to that guy you met in the dinghy, and...everything else." she reminded him, clasping his hand gently as Ari's face paled. He didn't give a reply, but he nodded - compliantly.

"He told me when." she continued, gulping. "We're marching tomorrow."

A very faint shiver went down Ari's back, and the sign almost slipped out of his hands and into the cool evening grass. He managed to catch it before Maia noticed that and the look on his face.

"Basically, we get up around an hour before dawn so no-one tries to...shut us down," she explained, "then half of us go up the water path, and half of us go down the water path. Like a ...what is it?...'Pinsir' movement."

"...I like the sound of this," Ari complimented, looking down at the Water Path and drawing out the morning in his head. "You planned this out?"

"...Yes. Anyway."

She dropped her voice low.

"The ones with Pokemon go first. In case we have to defend ourselves." Maia explained, holding up the Pokeball she kept in her pocket, chipped paint and all. "We're meant to be non-violent, but, uh...things may happen. Things might go wrong, but I swear, it's not gonna end up like the protest your...your mum was at."

"Right, right," Ari repeated quietly.

"Isn't it exciting?" Maia stage-whispered to him, "We get to…" she faltered. "We get to have a shot at changing the world!" Her face meant to glow, but it just ended up looking like she'd been running a race for too long.

With a gentle flick of a wrist, the Pokeball in her hand opened, and the Totodile inside started running, pitter-patter, around her leg before hiding sheepishly behind her back.

"Not the world, geez." Ari clarified, scrambling to pick up the sheet of cardboard on the ground while the little blue crocodile eyed it up.

"Oh, ah... don't be like that!" Maia laughed, "My dad always said, you shouldn't self deprecate. It won't get you anywhere. ...Just don't stress about this, is what I'm saying. 'Kay?"

Ari stood there, blankly, hoping Maia would ask him why he would, but she was already striding away through the knee-high grass, followed by a girl Ari didn't even know yet.

"You coming?" she asked him.

"Yep." Ari nodded, and gave her a slightly awkward thumbs up.

 _For Kyogre's sake._

He tried following into the woods -

"Maia, I wanted to ask - "

All there was was left was a couple of leaves on the ground from where they'd ducked into the bushes.

The crowd was gone; apart from a couple of screaming kids fighting with leftover sticks.

He sighed, before catching himself and scolding himself - no, he'd find them. The coast, through the bushes, at least one of them would end up there.

Gingerly, carefully, he shoved the sign back into the little flax bag by his side, message hidden, just in case someone from the island over saw him.

 _Completely alone._

Eventually, after swatting aside bush after bush after bush, he reached a tiny metal boat washed up on the beach. The tiny dinghy, with a painted "Water Path Floating Mart!" sign hanging off of it.

Suspiciously, it was covered in seaweed.

"Hello?"

There was a tiny note, covered in glitter, on the raggedy leather seat. 'For Everyone on Water Path.'

 _He leaned over to grab it, tear it open and..._

Again, Kaia saw a little, rectangular shape between the trees, as she kept going down the rugged path to the Pattern Bush. Most of them were gossiping about how some kids on the other islands weren't meeting up with them anymore.

"Hey, Ariiiii?..." she yelled, catching Maia's attention briefly.

Nothing.

"I was wondering if you'd come Pokémon training with me?" she offered, tugging her Surskit out of her bag and patting it on the head. Even though the Surskit started chirping like a cricket, no one responded.

"Dude," she started, trying to sound as little of a bossy boots as possible, "'Braviary' said it wasn't safe to be out and about this time of…"

Then, she heard the hollow thud of metal on - something.

" _ **Ari?! - "**_

"'EY!" she yelled, crashing onto the beach with a thump. Her hair was a right mess now; at least 2 sticks in it, but as she looked, she realized that might not matter.

Ari, reaching over the edge of the beached metal dinghy, had slipped right over and hit his head on the steel seat.

"What?" he asked nonchalantly, scrambling to get his Pokeball back in his pocket. Getting himself upright wasn't worth it.

"Ah - nothing's wrong." Kaia explained, yanking him to his feet, "Just wanted to see why you were…here..."

She took a second look at the boat. Something about it seemed really familiar, maybe the blue ink-stain on the boat's seat. Brought back memories of when her Electric Cyan hue got spilled all over the place.

"Oh...were you looking for the guy that highlighted my haaaaair?..."

"What - no!" gasped Ari, "No, I just - wasn't looking where I was going, jeez…" He brushed himself off, leading Kaia away and back through the trees. "The day I get highlights is the day I die, honestly! - "

The old, fluffy-bearded white man in the boat, might've been Braviary's best friend - that was the only explanation Ari could think of for doing what he did, anyway. He'd come to the islands and sell everyone things from the little white dinghy. Hair dye, ribbons, whatever, at a reasonable price. The younger ones would sell the shells they'd found on the seashore; no older kid ever found out if he paid them in gold coins or chocolate coins.

"Where's the guy?" Kaia questioned, "I'd wanted to buy some potions tomorrow in case my little Treecko faints…"

Ari cursed a little under his breath.

"What? I thought Maia said, we'd do proper battles now if we're bored."

She opened her bag and let the tiny Treecko inside run up her back and down her arm - "No chickening out before they reach zero health...that's more fun. Why, what's wrong with that?"

"...We shouldn't." Ari contemplated, not noticing how Kaia was leading him off the beach and back into the Pattern Bush. "We're not meant to be showing off our…"

Kaia looked back and realised he'd stopped walking. There was a laughing bubbling inside him, and he fished his own Pokeball out his pocket -

"Sorry, uh...what am I saying?"

The Hoppip in his tiny red ball escaped and started running around his feet, brushing up against the Treecko on Kaia's arm, both of them trilling as Kaia looked at him in confusion. They seemed happy enough.

"I sound like a...bloody strategist." he lamented, "Sorry."

"Yeah, I see that...Captain." Kaia reassured him, before giving him a mocking military salute and causing them both to collapse into laughter. "Alright, this way - hopefully you can still walk after getting your head smashed in by a boat seat..."

"You're gonna be melodramatic now, are ya?"

"Honestly, it sounded like a church bell," Kaia described, "Were you just...leaning back and contemplating life?"

"No, no…"

"I wouldn't put it past you."

"I saw this note from the guy in the boat. Covered in glitter, so it was probably for the kids who sell him conch shells..." Ari explained, tugging the folded piece of paper out of his pocket. The sparkles went everywhere; his black waistband now a pastel-grunge mess of craft materials.

"Ooooh!" Kaia squeaked -

"What? Is it the glitter?"

"No, no, read it!" Kaia asked, "Seriously! I want to know if he wants me to pay up for that one Ether he gave me…"

"Later," Ari told her, "I'll have everyone listening."

"Ugh."

 **-•** • **-**

"So the teacher he says...he says, 'well you didn't have be bringing your siblings into this!" Matiu was telling everyone in the canvas tent, lighting up his face with a small, tacky torch, "And I was like - where do ya THINK Tamati lives? Is he like an interdimensional being livin' in the void until he needs his dinner? Like some kind of migratory Wingull?" A couple of his friends hollered with laughter.

"What'd they say to that?" Ari yelled from the other side of the crowd of kids, just getting a "dunno" back.

"I'd reckon I'm a migratory bird," Tamati finished, slapping the torch out of Matiu's hand, "Probably gonna migrate to Hoenn when I'm older!"

"Yeah, yeah," Matiu told him, snatching the light back and throwing it over the tent. "So...you said you wanted to talk about something after I'm done." The torch landed with a thump at Ari's feet.

" _Ari?..."_

Kaia was motioning towards Ari's pocket - but before Ari could move, Maia grabbed the torch and started to speak.

"So...I'm sure all of you've been wondering when this massive protest for the Seven Island land purchase is happening," she began, "And I can finally give you a proper date. It's tomorrow morning!"

Ari considered going to sleep right then and there, so he wouldn't have to listen to the same thing twice. He'd already rolled out his tattered sleeping bag.

"So, are there going to be batt - ?" Tamati asked, shaking, before being interrupted by his older brother -

"Is it...uh...non-violent?"

Ari immediately changed his mind.

" _Matiu, it's - "_

"Ahh, yes...my dad hasn't gotten any death threats or threats of violence from people in nearby islands that've already been...bought up," Maia explained, drowning out Ari's voice by accident, "So no. It's non-violent. You're not gonna need your Pokémon."

As everyone in the tiny canvas tent started cheering, Ari just sat there blank faced.

"Maia - I thought you said it was- …" he asked, tugging at her dress.

Matiu was comforting his brother, who'd collapsed into his arms. Kaia was cuddling her Treecko as it wagged its tail delighted.

Ari's Poochyena was still shut in a Pokeball, far away from him. "...Never mind." he finished.

"I just thought I'd...tell you what I heard from Dad," Maia explained, shrugging, "and not like, the short of it. I don't wanna freak out Matiu now, do I?" Ari started nodding, before unwrapping the note he had in his pocket; maybe that'd explain what the deal was. It was from the old man in the boat and they said the old man in the boat knew everything.

Was he going to have to go out and battle properly like people on TV or not?

And of course, there was the question of whether or not he'd be...what was the word? ...Hurt? Lynched.

" _Hello, my lovely customers!_ " _is_

The note was surprisingly large.

Then again, there was the question of whether Ari was just being paranoid.

" _Thankyou so much for sticking with me for so long. It has been a pleasure for me to introduce what I have and what you have to me, whether that be shells, pocket money, or your language."_

He heard a small coo behind his back - Kaia was there, trying not to smile as she read along with him - it was either that the note was written in their language or the doodled heart in the corner.

" _But I am afraid I will have to leave you for a short while. I have heard some things from friends about your protest, and am taking a short...hiatus."_

Oh.

" _You are probably wondering: why did I leave my trusted boat behind?"_

Ari never noticed how Tamati and Maia were crowding over his shoulder.

" _Because you need to get off this island as quickly as possible."_

Both of them froze.

" _I have faith that you can use my oars as well as I can. Go to Five Island and tell my friends you need their help before - "_

"Oh god," Ari gasped, grabbing the piece of paper and staring at it, "Maia - "

"I didn't know!" she stammered back, "Why would - Keep reading."

"Before WHAT happens?" Kaia demanded, reaching for the note with trembling hands.

"Maybe its a fake," Matiu suggested, giving Maia a look that wanted approval, "They want us off the island, so they can take it. That's what they meant! It's non violent! That's how it…"

"No." Ari told him, "Don't...don't say that."

"This is real, I'm sure of it." Maia decreed over the chaos. "Ari. Gimme the note - Dad might not get it otherwise."

"...Actually...I'm coming with." Ari offered, holding the little piece of paper close.

"Same." Matiu continued, standing by his friend and squeezing his hand.

"Same." Kaia echoed, "Tamati, you coming?..." He shook his head, and sat down proudly on Matiu's bag of school supplies and snacks he'd brought.

"Nah. In case someone comes in and steals our stuff," he explained, "I'll scream at 'em." Matiu raised an eyebrow, before relenting and reaching in his pocket.

"...Set my Horsea on 'em." he ordered, tossing him a Pokeball and smiling. The tent's zip burst open, and the party left.

The Pattern Bush was full of the little ones that weren't clever enough to go to bed early, and hundreds of Volbeat were buzzing around them; oblivious to how they were trying to catch them. As they walked down the path and through the intricate paths they'd trodden through the grass, they all turned to look at them in awe. Ari shoved the note back in his jeans, wondering if they'd noticed the grim look on his face - everyone did.

"If this isn't anything, I think I'm gonna go grab that net I made...around 4 years ago, in Year 3," Maia mused, "and do some Volbeat catching for a while."

"Same," Ari told her, "I think my Poochyena tore mine t' pieces, though." he described, getting a titter from Kaia and Maia both.

"If it isn't anything," Maia reminded everyone. "Alright! ...everyone," she barked as they approached the exit of the Pattern Bush and the entrance to the marae - "We're nearly here." In front of them was the great meeting house they'd been inside just a few hours before.

The windows were dark now, no light leaking out while Maia strode through the entrance, casually slipping off her shoes as she went. An old man had a seat near the back, with a tiny smile on his face and a tattered newspaper on his lap.

"You still got the note?" she asked, prompting Ari to frantically fumble through his pocket and shove the paper into her hand - she took it inside, and the conversation ended there. Ari, Matiu and Kaia were left slumped up against the meeting-house's Wall, staring at the sky.

No-one eavesdropped and no-one wanted to be the one to interrupt, though someone heard a whimper or two.

"Hey. Hey, Ari." Matiu whispered.

"What?" Ari groaned, hoping this wouldn't end with a terrible pop culture reference - that is until he looked over and saw their glowing face.

" **There's something in the sky."**

Ari shot up, staggering to get balance as he watched the glittering nightscape. Kaia pointed to the constellations, high above the hills of Pattern Bush; five, ten, twenty plumes of flaming stars streaked across the sky at once.

Their eyes lit up, tiny feet pattered up to them, a hundred children watching the star show.

Tiny sparks rained down on them, landing like snow on all their shoulders. The Millenium Comet has never come this early before, and never shed its coat of sparkles.

"See, Ari?..." Matiu gasped, "Even the sky's gonna be cheering us on."

"Oh, shut it."

Ari, despite all the years that had passed since then, never forgot those few seconds as the most pure in his life.

 **That is, until the stars turned around and started to speak.**

" _This Island is Kantonian Government property. We remind you have been given three opportunities so far to move to state-given property in Vermillion City."_

They weren't stars.

" _This is your final warning to end the occupation of this Kantonian Government land. Otherwise, we will be forced to act."_

They were Charizards.

The outlines of five bright orange dragons shot across the sky like arrows, breathing a shower of sparks and flames as they went - the blast of wind threw everyone to the scorched earth. The attack was calculated; the buildings and fences were the first and only things to go, going up in smoke with a massive woomph and leaving the crowd to scatter like insects. The dry wood caught quickly - the green wood hissed with smoke.

If Ari remembered that correctly, he would've been fine. Or careless.

Wing clipped girder. Structures snapped and broke. A single paua shell got knocked clean out of its socket, leaving a burning statue with just one eye left. Eyes grew hazy, breath grew shorter. Maia and Kaia and Matiu all vanished in an instant.

They still screamed for him through the roaring and ringing in Ari's ears, though the grey, suffocating haze.

He picked himself up off the ground and tried to run towards them.

Lead them to the sea where they would play the game where they'd stay underwater for as long as they could stand, he ran fast as his legs could carry him, crashing into something, everything -

" _SOMEONE, HELP! - ..."_

...In hindsight, it must have been his fault that the meeting-house fell on top of him.

 _Crack._

He looked up just in time to see a torched piece of roof fall onto his back.

His breath was gone, the snap made him gasp - but the air was filled with burning ash and woodsmoke, he only got what felt like glass in his lungs - he reached out to try and pull himself away, but he just got dust.

The ocean was just a few feet away, over the dune and past a pile of flaming wood - that would be it. If he could get in the water, it would be all over but - all he got was dust.

Handfuls of dust that broke before he could hold onto them.

And so, his hand went limp. He kept breathing, slower and slower, each time getting more and more ragged.

In, and out.

Had he been there ten minutes? One? Why wasn't anyone coming for him? Did everyone else take the message and run?

His eyes kept shutting themselves - of course, Ari knew that if that happened, they weren't going to open again.

His spine just felt a dull ache, but his head was starting to throb with the worst headache he'd ever had.

 _His throat was closing -_

Ari's vision finally faded, going from flickering flames to blackening smoke to a peaceful, uniform black. Thought left him, and for a moment, he was at a sleepover again, waiting till next morning where the happy, shiny children would get up and play.

Of course, that part wasn't in his memory. No-one ever remembered that, but he assumed he went peacefully.

…

What he did remember, though, was someone picking him up.


	2. Chapter 2 - Homebound?

__

" _Set up the electrolytes and the antibiotic in the IV drip - Markov, check that all the sharps got thrown away - properly this time - and go get me an actual mask?"_

" _We don't...actually 'ave any antibiotics left."  
_ " _You're kidding me."  
_ Ari made a tiny shift on the rough mattress, his legs aching faintly, his head feeling bare and his arms feeling like they'd come apart. A cold wooden brace pressed around his thighs and ankles, barely letting him move without making a sound.

Faintly he could see bars around his bed, curtains hiding the two men bending over him. One was in a white coat, the other had a handkerchief tied over his mouth.

His eyes were barely open, unnoticeably so.

 __" _We, erm... weren't expecting three hundred people."_

From what little Kantonian classes he'd had on and off in school, he could tell they might've been speaking that.

And they were barely paying attention.

" _I'll get them from some...some volunteer worker. You go and check on the boy next door and let him out, so we can get his brother in intensive care…"_

" _Name?"_

" _Matt. Also, keep the Venomoths in place; we'll need 'em for anesthetic…"_

" _How?"_

" _Oh, I don't know, tie them to something…"_

The first man gave a whistle and a click, before striding out the open door, throwing the handkerchief onto a desk. The other one followed meekly behind - and the door slammed shut.

 __He heard two tiny wings flutter above him in a panic, as his arm floated towards whatever _up_ was. The pins and needles he'd felt on his left arm were _real_ \- tiny, insect feet. The other one, hung by just two tiny strings in the air, was starting to get its sensations back.

Just what was holding it up, though?

Venomoths.

Four of them.

They were tied to his arm with strings, beating their tiny little wings, straining to get to the glaring medical lamp.  
Whistles of protest echoed between them - one of them fluttered distractedly towards an abandoned coffee cup, jerking his arm violently to the right. Another lay in a glass case, shedding scales into a container. Distressed, stressed, and confused, it flapped against the glass with a gentle thump, thump, thump, thump -

Ari frantically shot up, sending shivers of pain up his arm - tearing off the little strings - the moths got as far away from him as possible. They were stuck to the lamp now, instead of his arm.

That was part one of whatever game plan he had.

"Hello?"

"Anyone there?"

"Maia?...Tamati?...Kaia?...Bro?..."

But nobody came.

The little chart on the side of his bed got quickly flipped up so Ari could crane his head over and look at it - if he remembered his one other trip to the hospital right, it'd have something useful.

Something that could tell him when he'd get to go home.

Flip, page one. Kantonian medical jargon. Words here and there he recognized, but nothing useful.

Flip, page two - more medical jargon. "Third-degree burns - "broken bone in leg, specific bone yet to be confirmed" - "smoke inhalation" - nothing he understood.

Page after page of empty boxes and coffee spills, before Ari gave up and flipped back to page one. He'd probably missed something. He'd just woken up.

Slowly, he took his thumb off the bottom of the page - and there was a box he hadn't seen before.

His name was there, written in the same chicken scratch everything else was. Still, he recognized it, though a neat line had been drawn through it.

And next to it was written "Archie."

Ari left it open on that page. He fled his room, as far away from it as possible.

The room he'd been in was only one of...hundreds? More? It opened onto a hall full of people he knew and people he'd never seen before. Some burned, some in leg braces like him, some walking around like nothing even happened.

"Hey, you! You got any idea where we're headed?"

He tried to ignore whoever that was. His mouth tasted like he'd been sleeping for years - speaking loudly was out of the question.

"Hey! Hey! Listen to me!"

Weird, considering the fire was only -

Out, out of the hallway, Ari continued to stride and through a doorway so large it could have fit ten kids like him - nine others shuffled their way in alongside him, pouring out into the crowd.

"Keep up!"

"Has _anyone_ seen an old woman with a ponytail?"

"So, uh...we should get an adult…"

"Anyone?!"

"Where's my mum?"

"Here! Over here!"

The room they'd just walked into, clad with metal walls and linoleum tiles, looked like someone had stretched it too far and too wide. Tables, enough for a large family and no more. Board games in tiny torn boxes, strewn about the floor. No soft light, no chairs, no nothing.

"Are there, like...any adults around here?"

"Don't say that, they'll get mad!"

"I can't see anyone."

"Maybe we're in heaven."

"Can you _not?!"_

Just all the people Ari had ever known, crammed into a space like this.

"Ma…"

His throat felt razed just from speaking. The coughing fit made everyone whip around in surprise, staring at him - wondering if he wanted his mum.

"Matiuuu?" he yodeled - and a figure jumped on top of him like a dog, bowling him over and crashing them both into a table. As far as Ari could tell, nothing had been broken.

"Bro!"

"You're alive!" Ari spluttered.

"Yeah! I am!" Matiu replied, completely oblivious.

"What happened to your legs?"

"Dunno. I...I think I broke 'em."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, ouch, uh…You know where everyone else is? My mama? Papa? Maia? Ka - "

"Over here," Matiu commented, dragging Ari over to a conveniently placed porthole in a corner, free of people and dust and medical equipment, "Anyway, can y' walk okay? You wanna use me as a crutch?"

"I've already got crutches."

"Oh."

Kaia, sitting in the corner with her knees up to her chest and a hand of damp playing cards in her hand, looked up in surprise as Ari awkwardly sat down, dumping his crutches on the wall.

"Hey!" she gasped quietly, giving him a hand of cards, "I was wondering when you'd show up."

"No-one told you I was...like, in the hospital part of this place?"

"Nope," Kaia observed, rolling their eyes, "We're just waiting around. Playing Go Fish. Maybe my mum will show up."

"Can I have your, uh...Feebas?" Matiu asked, holding his hand out expectantly.

"Yeah, she'll...she'll show up," Kaia continued regardless, sucking in her breath sharply.  
"The Feebas or your mama?..."  
Kaia gave Matiu the best smile she could.

"I'll play in a moment," Ari told the pair, staring out onto the open sea through the porthole.

He tried to look at the tacky little cards in his hand, the ones with cartoonish Feebas and Finneon and Magikarp, but the more he looked out that window the more things seemed wrong.

The Sevii Islands were nowhere in sight. No rocks, no grassy cliffs, no Wingulls near the shore, no fire, no collapsed buildings, no Charizards in the air that filled with smoke and dust and ash and noise -

Just open water and the midnight sky.

He didn't even notice he'd been holding his breath the entire time, when Matiu clapped a hand on his back and knocked it out of him.

"So...tell me what happened!" he asked loudly, "...Or did you already tell me? I can't remember."  
"Nope," Ari replied, gulping, "I, uh...pretty much just woke up in a hospital bed and came here."  
"I know that bit," Matiu shuddered a little - "I, uh...woke up there too."  
"Same," Kaia continued, joining them by the window, "There wasn't even anyone there when I got up. Maybe they'd finished and thought I was fine to go…"

True, almost no-one had come to attend to them. Sure, a few older sisters and brothers had come by, sure, they might have attracted a flock of smaller kids, but they looked just as bruised and confused as every other 5-year-old. Some of them even looked his way, like they expected him to get up and act like an adult.  
"You lead the way, Ari," Matiu offered, "You know your way around, right?"  
"Kind of."  
Well - the one other time Ari'd been in hospital, his mama had brought him some doughnut balls she'd made herself, and everything else he liked, and his papa sang him to sleep until visiting hours closed. He could rest like he was in his own bed.

It was comforting, anticipating the welcome back he'd get when the ship saw the island's smoke fading away and turned around. He'd gotten lost before - this time, though, it wasn't his fault. Against all odds, he had survived. They had survived.

"And maybe," Kaia planned, "once we get your baby brother we can go and get, I don't know, a crutch for me?"

"Huh?" Matiu questioned.

"My leg hurts like hell. I, uh...sprained my ankle when I was running away? I think?"

"Running - ohhh."

"Yeah."

For now - all three followed Ari out the huge double doors and into the winding corridors of the ship, holding hands so they wouldn't accidentally lose each other again. The distinctive energetic _whoosh_ of Pokeballs opening and the thump of people's beloved companions hitting the floor started echoing through the building, and the place started to brighten with the sound of Pokemon cries. Some in delight, some in confusion.

"Oh, hey, lil' guy!" Ari cooed, as a Totodile ran across his foot and clung to his leg, "Where's your trainer?..." The crocodile, unsurprisingly, didn't answer.

He could swear he'd seen that _particular_ Totodile before. With someone else.

Nor could he pretend like he was its trainer forever, he thought, trying to kick it off his leg and failing. The persistent thing clung to the leg brace, sinking its teeth into it. So much for him being the crocodile whisperer, friend of things with sharp teeth everywhere.

Except while he was still kicking, someone tapped on his shoulder.

"Did you get off the island on your Pokemon?" Matiu asked, tentatively, turning to Ari to make sure he was actually listening.

"Wait - what?"

"I don't think I saw you when, like...you know. Everything was on fire," Matiu explained, leaning on another heavy door but waiting, waiting before he left - "Did you escape or something? I kind of assumed you did…"

"I…"

"Were we...too far away?"

"No, I, uh - " Ari stuttered, grabbing Matiu's shoulder and trying to comfort him - "I heard you and Kaia when you were there, seriously! I just couldn't have…"

There wasn't anything for Ari to refer back to. His mind, a blank. Matiu, still looking as nonchalant as ever.

The least he remembered was his face to the ground, the dust between his fingers and voices he certainly recognized - but never responded to.

How much strength would it have taken Ari to get up?

"Done...anything."

Ari sighed deeply - "So, no. To answer the question, no, uh...daring escape. Why, did you try...?"

"Mm, yeah," Matiu confirmed, gulping something down, "Didn't really work," he concluded, kicking open the heavy metal door in front of him, with more strength Ari has ever seen him perform before.

"Right!" Kaia exclaimed, "We're here!"

The room was cavernous, taller than any other section of the ship. It took up two floors - a balcony between the two - and every last square foot was taken up with beds with only a tiny margin to move through.

Surprisingly, there were no people. No surgeons, no doctors, no awake patients to speak of. Every bed was enclosed by a curtain of questionable cleanliness, and no suspicious shadows moved behind them.

Nothing, in fact, was moving, other than the ship.

The details became clear the more Ari focused on it - the words on the clipboards were written in Kantonian, a language Ari recognized but couldn't translate. Red crosses were painted everywhere, some flaking off. People lay in the beds, a few of them moving and chattering between themselves.

If you strained your eyes hard enough, they might even be recognizable.

"Down," Kaia muttered, ducking below a rolling cart and beckoning everyone else, "Right. Good. Do we have a, uh - game plan?" Their backs almost lifted up the metal underside, spilling the medical equipment on board everywhere.

"Aaaahh - no," Ari admitted, trying to contort his body to fit the hiding spot, "I'd kind of wanted a lie down, though."

At that, Matiu had a small fit of laughter.

"Well, if we're gonna be finding Maia and Tamati, we should, uh...stay under here. You said you're not supposed to be out..." Kaia reminded him.

"We can't all fit, though! I'm basically a grown man!" Ari protested.

"...No, you're not."

The tittering was getting kind of annoying.

"Bro! Stop laughing."

"Yeah, you'll give away our location, dummy," Kaia snivelled, sarcastically.

"Wasn't me!" Matiu snapped.

Cavernous laughter echoed around the room like a live audience's reaction.

"Well, who the hell was it, then?"

Cautiously, Kaia poked her head out from under the supply cart and cast her head up to the balcony above.

"Uh...guys?"

At least fifty small children, flanked by grown men and women in glasses and coats, were gazing back down at them in awe. Kindergarteners. Schoolchildren. Toddlers, even.

"We're being watched."

"WHAT?" Matiu gasped, pulling in his arms and legs, "Who? Can they see us?"

"Some kids and some adults. The adults look kind of pissed off," Kaia clarified.

"How've they not heard us?" Matiu mumbled, almost inaudible.

"They don't speak any Sevii," Ari realised, "I...think I've got an idea."

Carefully, he wriggled slightly out from under the cart, waiting until the tall, lanky figures walked far enough away. Preparing his best stage whisper, he cleared his throat.

To everyone above, it must've looked like a supplies trolley was about to give them a rousing speech.

"Has anyone up there seen a...Horsea and a Totodile?" Ari called, hoping he remembered one of last night's scenes correctly. The Totodile on Maia's shoulder, the gifted Horsea to Tamati - his memory almost never failed him when he wasn't in danger.

"YEAH!" cried a couple of children, rising to a chorus that all three could hear.

Ari, shaking, gave them the melodramatic fingers on lips.

"Where?" Matiu continued.

"The Totodile ran away!"

"I SAW ONE?"

"Where? Where?"

"OVER THERE!"

"Where the heck is over there?!" Kaia hissed, resting her face in her hands and groaning, "God, you two come up with the weirdest ideas…"

"LEFT!"

"Ohh," she sighed.

"Which way's left?"

"I'll do it."

With a scoot-scoot, the three slowly pulled themselves forward over the dirty linoleum. Matiu took care of keeping the cart upright, while Kaia was in charge of making sure no-one was in the way.  
"No, your legs are too long!"  
Actually, no, Kaia was in charge of keeping them upright.  
"You're too big, Matty, move!"  
On second thought, it was Matiu.  
"I THINK WE JUST RAN OVER A SPIDER!"  
Eventually, they agreed to disagree.

"STOP!...RIGHT!"

"Wait, which way's - "

"Oh my god."

"LEFT!"

"Watch out, there's a puddle!"

"Deal with it," Ari asserted, keeping watch to make sure there were no spiders in said puddle.

"RIGHT! LEFT!"

"Thankyooou!" Ari cooed to all of his audience, before ducking back under the cold metal disguise, scooching along the floor as fast as his hands and knees could carry him.  
Ten seconds later, he smashed his head against a wall.  
"STOP LAUGHING!"  
"Actually, that's just me," Matiu clarified, "'Soz."

"LEFT!"

"I wonder what this looks like to those grown-ups," Ari pondered, rubbing the top of his head and shuffling to the back.

"I'd like to be up there!" Matiu replied.

"I'd like to hurry up."

"RIGHT!"

"Why? The slower we go, the less suspicious we are, like in the movies…" Ari butted in.

"Nope, I haven't seen any movies where you do that."

"LEFT!"

"Actually, I prefer romance movies - " Matiu admitted, "They're funnier."  
"Same, honestly," Ari muttered -  
Gasp here. A cry of surprise there. Pointing, hushed breath.

"Whaaat? Aren't I allowed to like romance movies?"

The crowd fell into a silence.

Behind them, though they couldn't see it, footsteps echoed closer and closer, while a metal door swung closed.

Someone locked it behind them.

"No-one's gotten up yet, hm?" one said in words unknown to Ari, surveying the silent room.

"Apparently, no." another person intoned, "I'd expect them to be running around all over the place."

"Check on them. Let them know what names got chosen for them now, it's only fair."

"Shouldn't we get the supply cart first?"

"Oh, yes! That!"

Shoes clacked on the ground, closer, closer and, unlike them, with a direction.

"Find it."

"RUN! RUN!" the crowd screamed once they realised what was going on, "LEFT! LEFT!"

Awkwardly, the cart started getting up off its wheels and careening down the aisle of beds, clattering and shedding scissors and bandages as it went. Ari had never tried shuffling across a floor so fast. His breath was leaving him. His throat was caked in dust again from the clouds of it they kicked up.

"Slow down!" Matiu suggested.

"Slow down?" Ari snapped - " _Slow down!?"  
_ "Try making it look like it's, y'know, not walking!" Kaia suggested, starting to do the worm instead of running on her hands and knees.

The adults started muttering words foreign, picking up the pace. Coats were ruffled. Orders were shouted, and someone told the kids to shut their mouths.

Frantically, Matiu and Ari started pulling at random bed-legs to accelerate, accelerate, faster and faster - but there was only so quick a cart could go. Slick with water, bashing into bedsteads, it careened around corners at a breakneck pace, shedding little pink plasters as it went.

"We should ditch this, Kaia!"

"Ari, no! We're fine!"

"They're getting closer!"

"FASTER!"

"We know!" Matiu hollered back, his back clanging on the bottom of their hiding spot. The voices were growing closer, a bit more desperate with every clatter of feet.

"RIGHT!"

Quicker than the crowd could realise, two of the orderlies started running together.  
"Follow the little pink plasters, Jeff! The plasters!"  
"What the hell are you - oh, those?"

"LEFT!"

"YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!"

The shiny metal cart was barely in sight, and to their surprise, it looked like it was running away from them.  
"It's just the boat, isn't it?"  
"Yeah, gravity."  
"SLIDE, KAIA, START SLIDING!" Ari ordered, tucking in his arms and legs and letting inertia fly the wheels across the floor. Matiu started acting like a rudder, steering them round corner after corner after corner. There - in the distance - they saw two blue critters just out of sight.

"RIGHT! RUN!"

"I swear to Arceus above," one cursed, "I'm going to tell _so many_ of my co-workers about this. I got serenaded by a bunch of Sevii kids from an actual tribe, it's adorable!"

"I don't think they're singing, Jeffery..."

"RUN!"

The pair ducked into another corridor of beds and curtains to find exactly what they were looking for.

The cart, tipped sideways and leaking equipment. The perpetrators, long gone.

Except for their pattering feet.

"Oh, well, kids will be - "

"SHUT IT, JEFFERY!"

Ari, filled with adrenaline and crashing into everything beside him, careened down the corridor, in his sights a Horsea by a bed and a Totodile beside it. Matiu's hand gripped his tighter than ever before, and this time? This time?

They were inseparable.

"Where's the guy in the coat?!" Kaia screamed between breaths.

"HE'S BEHIND YOU!"

The pair of orderlies, confused by what exactly these kids were screaming about stepped into the last row of beds, staring down a repeating sequence of pure white curtains.

Once again, the crowd fell silent. The watchful eyes of the adults in the room were powerful, as they only now realised what was going on.

Cautiously, the scouting pair shone two high-powered flashlights down the length. Like a shadow puppet, whatever was behind the curtains was illuminated. Unconscious child after unconscious child.

Ari prayed they wouldn't point the light downwards.

What then?

Back to square one?

They curled under a bed in absolute darkness, the three held hands, shut their eyes, and tried as hard as they could not to cough.

"Did you check everywhere?"

"Yeah."

Ari could only keep it up for so long, though.

"Jeffery."

"Actually, maybe I didn't check everywhere…"

Don't breathe, Ari told himself, don't breathe. Don't breathe, he continued, as a torchlight beam scanned under the bed and across the floor. Don't breathe, he tried, as it planned over his still and unmoving body.

"Anything?"

Don't breathe.

"Nope. Nothing there," the orderly sighed, switching off the flashlight and getting up off the floor. "Other than dust, can you get Katie to give the floor a scrub once we've dropped the kids off in Slateport?"

And just like that, they left. A minute, ten, an hour later - the door slammed shut and the Kantonian chatter stopped completely.

The silence continued, even while Kaia and Ari and Matiu crawled out from under the bed.

They looked up, and the whole balcony of children burst into applause and cheers.

"Oh my god." Ari gasped, sitting back on the bed, "It worked."

"It...it worked," Kaia laughed, "It worked!"

"YES!" Matiu cried to the heavens, before kneeling down and scooping up the terrified Horsea.

"Hey there, little guy!" he greeted, showing the rest of the group the little sea creature, "Sorry for leaving you with my lil' brother, he's a bit of a scatter brain sometimes. I'll take care of ya' next time, don't you worry!"

"THANKYOU!" Ari called to the crowd of people, before turning back to his friends, "So this is where Tamati and Maia are?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Matiu confirmed, "I mean, on the little sign, they wrote down 'Timothy' for some reason, but...it's close, it's close. Maybe whoever wrote this can't read."  
"I'm guessing Timothy is Tamati, Mary is Maia?" Ari theorised, remembering what name he got.

"Alright," Kaia announced, her face lighting up, "Shall we, uh...pull off the curtains on the count of three?"

"Yeah! I'd never pass up an opportunity to scare the pants off Tamati," Matt openly said.

"Aight, aight - " Ari finished, clearing his throat - "One."

"TWO!" the chorus of children yelled.

"Three," the trio announced, pulling away away their curtains to find -

Only one person.

Ari didn't recognize it. The body in the curtained crib beside him didn't look like anyone - a person at all at first glance. The imprint in the bed he stood in front of told him nothing - the kids they'd left behind weren't anywhere to me seen.

But as he looked at it, he recognized more. The signature shape of what was once Tamati's little stone necklace, the remnants of the clothes he wore.

The canvas fabric of the tent they were going to sleep in the night before, was even fused in some places to the person Matiu held, frozen and limp, and tried to wake up. But that was impossible. This didn't happen to people.

But nothing was happening.

"Maia?!" Kaia cried, her voice echoing over and over again, "Em, where'd you go?!"

She ran, far, far away, kicking the cart they'd used for all this time while it was down, spilling medical equipment far across the floor.

Glinting. They must've alerted someone.

"Kaia?" he asked the empty room.

She was too far gone.

"MAIA!" she screamed now, eliciting a restless shift in the crowd. People whimpering, people whispering.

They watched her run.

Where to, they'd follow.

After all, none of them were older than seven, and Kaia was the oldest of everyone in the room.

Behind him, though, Matiu collapsed to the ground, back pressing into the metal struts behind him. Quietly, he curled around his baby brother. It'd protect him from the cold outside air.

The children were clever, yes.

Certainly clever enough to make the connection between the shape Matiu held in his hands…

...and the shapes behind all the other curtains.

"Ari!" Matiu called shakily, grabbing his hand and guiding him down beside him, "Can we do something? Is Tammy gonna be alright?"

"I…"

"See! He's still moving a bit! He's...under some kind of sleep, like the ones you get put in when you get an operation!"

Carefully, Ari's hand drifted to Tamati's neck and held it there, wondering if a faint heartbeat could still be felt.

"So...he…"

There was none, only the slight shifting of broken skin as Matiu breathed heavier and heavier - Ari's eyes grew wider, wider…

"So his heart would still be going, right?"

Ari wrapped Matiu up in his arms, laying Tamati in their laps, whispering, incoherently.

Morally, he should say no, but he thought over and over again, yes.

That kid bounced back from everything.

All of them bounced back from everything, actually.

"You're...you're gonna be okay, alright?" Ari reassured him, listening as Matiu's breath grew labored and tears started streaking down his face, "We're not going to die, or anything. The hardest part's over. I'm gonna...I'm gonna make sure we're okay, alright, like Maia and her dad used to."

Kaia made her way slowly back to the pair, face painted with disbelief when she heard Ari talk in the past tense.

"Did you...find them?" he asked, hopefully, straightening up a little.

Kaia could only shake her head. A Totodile followed behind her, shivering violently after hearing it's trainer's name called so many times with no response. Falling down onto the side of a bed, she rested one head in her hands, teeth clenched so hard it made her head ache.

"So...what now? If Maia's dead and her dad's dead and everyone else in that house was dead then - then what happened to home?" she rattled off, so fast that Ari didn't keep up.

"I...I don't know."

The Pokémon, the children, and the crowd were clever.

Many people on the ship believed that the children were like a flock of birds, that thought of a missing member as just an absence, nothing more. Even if their lives were not rough and unstable as some wanted to believe, they still understood.

They were clever enough to understand what it meant when the men in coats came back.

Though they didn't understand what they were saying, they recoiled when a man beckoned for Matiu to give him their brother. Even if they called him Tommy and never spoke a word of Sevii, the context could still be filled in.

They reacted accordingly when Matiu, Ari and Kaia told them no.

But once the employees split up to find others, carts in hand large enough to hold a child, they started to shift.

There was no stage directions Ari could give them to stop them.

Pouring down like a tidal wave, they rushed down the stairs in a flurry of feet and cried-out names. Sisters found brothers, friends found friends, but still more got knocked underfoot, brushed through the crowd like a fallen leaf. Ari fell straight into the bed meant for Maia, pulling Matiu up, up, into whatever high-ground they could find.

How was this going to stop him from getting crushed like last time? Like last night? There were no routes of east escape he could take, gripping Matiu's hand tightly as possible and staying still as the children he knew pushed up against him, prying through the curtains to see if they knew the person behind.

"Stick by me, okay?" Ari advised, quietly under the noise of a hundred children.

There was the smallest chance that Matiu and Kaia still thought he'd pulled off the best plan ever. That on his own, he was clever, instead of just in the crowd.

"You're gonna be okay. I promise. I'm not going to let anyone go," Ari whispered quietly, blurting out whatever came to mind.

He had a history of not being that person.

"Not again, alright? Not again - "

The ship's horn blared loudly.

They had landed on Hoenn's shore - but no-one stopped to listen or cheer.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

Ari heard no-one other than himself this time.

"I...I'll try harder next time."


End file.
